Unlike 007, CSIS gigs offer little glamour

Common sense and honesty are two major traits one must have in order to land a job with the CSIS.

Photograph by: Claireliot
, Fotolia.com

Stirred, not shaken, by the thought of spying on people for a living? There are (job) app(lication)s for that.

While the latest James Bond blockbuster, Skyfall, dominates silver screens and lightens wallets around the globe, there are perfectly good spying jobs out there for the taking. All applicants should begin their mission with a hefty dose of common sense, honesty and a desire to do the right thing; the command of a few languages wouldn't hurt, either.

While Daniel Craig and his predecessors have famously battled evil for the British Secret Service, that job is handled closer to home by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). Talk about multi-tasking - the agency is charged with monitoring or combating the following: Security screening, terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, espionage and foreign interference, and information security threats.

The CSIS careers website (www.csiscareers.ca) offers plenty of listings with the words 'analyst,' 'engineer' or even 'webmaster' in the title, but James Bond wannabe's will probably be most interested in the 'Surveillant' posting.

To land this job, CSIS is looking for a two-year community college degree and valid driver's licence. If you were to obtain a top security clearance and survive a two-year probation, you can look forward to a salary of between $56,940 to $69,270 per year. Tahera Mufti of CSIS acknowledges the girls-and-gadgets glamour of the Bond films can influence those looking to get into the spy business.

"While CSIS officers - unlike James Bond - might not routinely do hand-to-hand combat with seven-foot villains on moving trains, we do offer a unique work environment with lots of challenges," she says in an email exchange. "And yes, we do develop and use interesting technologies - maybe not the stuff of movies, but pretty cool all the same.

"As for the sort of people we're looking for, it's worth noting that collectively our employees speak about 105 languages. Ours is a highly diverse workplace, one that represents the rich mosaic that is Canada. We look for people who are intellectually curious, who possess excellent judgment and discretion, and who have a desire to protect Canada's national security."

If all that's a bit too heady, there is the private sector - as in, private detective sector.

Ozzie Kaban and his associates have been stalking B.C. since 1972, and he knows exactly what it takes to make it in this tough field.

"Two things - common sense and honesty," Kaban says.

As much of his operatives' work ends up in court, he's interested in "nothing but the facts."

"If you just employ a bunch of Dick Tracys running around, under the Privacy Act, you're gonna end up in a lot of do-do.

"And you can quote me on the do-do."

Kaban adheres to the maxim that "if you didn't see it, if you didn't hear it - it didn't happen."

Unlike 007, Kaban's not interested in "bedroom reports," and he's had to pull more than one undercover agent because they became "too close to the case" and wouldn't able to accurately report on it.

Although Kaban is involved mostly in commercial fraud cases, he's handled everything up to homicide investigations - and he refuses to put his people in danger.

"Life is too short to take those risks," he says. The bulk of his agents are ex-police officers or have criminology degrees ... one current employee has a background in forensic science.

Kaban has seen plenty of changes in the ability of technology like closed circuit television to pry into people's lives, but cautions again that too much intrusion can bring up the "do-do" again.

Besides the all-important common sense, Kaban is looking for jobseekers' ability to document (video, audio) and present (written reports) their cases.

He also plays down the glamour of the job.

"When you spend eight to nine hours sitting there looking around corners and all you see is dogs, it's hard to get a sense of accomplishment," he says.

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.